Pairing · Christmas menu
What wine goes with Christmas dinner?
A sweet wine with the foie gras, a Médoc or a Saint-Émilion with the capon, sparkling with the bûche de Noël. Three wines, not six: the meal is long and many guests are driving. The selector below is set for the classic French Christmas menu; change what you're serving, and the page says how much to plan for twelve and by what date to order.
The Christmas menu, course by course
Foie gras, poultry, cheese board and bûche are preset. Replace any of them: each line gives an appellation family, a colour, an age and a price range, with no brand.
The four moments of the meal
Foie gras → Sauternes or Loupiac
In half bottles, 5 cl per person, one half bottle for eight. The detail, the alternatives and the dry version are on the what wine with foie gras page. With oysters or salmon, a dry white Entre-deux-Mers instead.
Capon, turkey, guinea fowl → Médoc or Saint-Émilion
Roast poultry is the easiest dish of the year to pair. A Médoc or Haut-Médoc five to eight years old if you like structure, a Saint-Émilion or Fronsac of the same age for more roundness. One bottle for two: it's the main item.
The same red, or a white
The Christmas cheese board is rich: finish the red from the main course. A dry white Graves does better with goat's cheeses and soft cheeses, but opening one more bottle for twelve people who have already been served is rarely worth it.
Bûche → sparkling
Brut champagne or crémant de Bordeaux, one bottle for six. With a chocolate bûche, a demi-sec works better than a brut. It's the same sparkling that will be served at midnight: count it once.
How many bottles for twelve at the table
Christmas dinner lasts four hours, but people drink less than at a wedding: there are lots of children, half the adults are driving home, and the meal is hearty. Allow 70% drinkers, three glasses each over the meal, plus one glass of sparkling. For twelve guests, six to eight bottles.
| Moment | Twelve guests | Twenty guests | Thirty guests |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foie gras, sweet wine (half bottles) | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Poultry and cheese, red | 4 | 6 | 9 to 10 |
| Bûche and midnight, sparkling | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Total | 8 | 12 | 18 to 19 |
No margin: at Christmas you never run out, there's always a bottle at the back of the cupboard. The quantities for the whole evening and the budget per head are on the wine for a family Christmas page.
For twelve, your local wine shop is the right place
Let's be clear: eight bottles is one visit to the local wine shop, which will advise you in five minutes and sell you the sweet wine in half bottles. A wine merchant becomes useful when the family goes beyond thirty at the table, when you're looking for a specific vintage to give, or when you group Christmas, New Year and gifts into one delivered order. That's the case the quote covers.
Order by when
December is the month when everything is slow: carriers are overwhelmed from the 10th, stocks of sweet wine in half bottles run out, the best vintages go as corporate gifts from November. For a delivered Christmas dinner, order before 5 December; for gifts, before 20 November. The full countdown and what is still possible late are on the page when to order wine for the festive season.
The Christmas menu also works as a template for a bigger festive meal, a company Christmas dinner or a winter wedding: the same pairings can be put together on the page food and wine pairing for a wedding menu, with the quantities for 100.
What red wine goes with Christmas capon or turkey?
A red Bordeaux five to eight years old, supple and ripe: Médoc or Haut-Médoc for structure, Saint-Émilion, Fronsac or Castillon for roundness. One bottle for two guests. Avoid a wine that is too young and tannic; poultry is delicate.
What wine goes with a bûche de Noël?
Sparkling: brut champagne with a fruit or ice-cream bûche, demi-sec with a chocolate bûche. A crémant de Bordeaux does the same job for half the price. One bottle for six, and they're the same bottles as at midnight.
How many bottles for a Christmas dinner for twelve?
Six to eight: two half bottles of sweet wine, four bottles of red, two of sparkling. With lots of children and drivers, take off one bottle of red. With thirty guests, allow eighteen to twenty bottles.
Do you need a different wine for each course?
No. Three wines are enough for a Christmas dinner: a sweet wine, a red, a sparkling. Opening more bottles for twelve people leaves dregs everywhere and complicates service. One good red with the main course and the cheese is better than two average ones.